I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this in my many years as a Sabbatarian, or how many times I may have said it. Now I’m saying it again, because I still agree it’s true. I may not put it on a bumper sticker like I’ve seen some do, but the next time I see one, I might honk and give them a thumbs up. Just wish I’d have time to explain why I agree. They won’t understand.
Most SDA Sabbatarians resolve to observe the correct Sabbath Day but hold the largely false presumption that all of Christianity has replaced Sunday with the 7th day Sabbath as the Biblical day of rest. It’s true that some do, but this does not represent most Christians. Most evangelicals don’t “keep” Sunday, they celebrate it. Does anyone tell you to “keep” your birthday, or mother’s day? Where is the law that demands you honor the people or events these days commemorate? There isn’t one, but yet you love to anyway.
The fact is, most Christians have never even stopped to think about the correlation between the 4th commandment and their custom of worship on Sunday, which is why so many of them are easy prey for SDA Sabbath teaching, or other Sabbatarian groups. And some others have been erroneously taught to see Sunday as a “sabbath” and for them as well as Sabbatarians I resound… “Sunday is NOT the Sabbath.”
Jesus is.
Just as the temple sacrifices pointed to the work of Christ’s atoning blood, the Sabbath was also a foreshadow of Christ’s work… HIS work and our rest in that work. Jesus didn’t rest on the Sabbath during His ministry, and He infuriated the Jews because of it.
The Sabbath also represents our death with Christ on the cross. The only way we cease from our own works is to die… reckon ourselves dead, as Paul says. His flesh, our flesh, lay silent in the tomb on the Sabbath. Every weekly and festival Sabbath pointed to this event.
Hebrews is a book showing the parallels between the Old Covenant pictures, and the New Covenant reality. It invites us to walk in the reality, not the shadow. Chapter 4 speaks to the shadow of the Sabbath showing specifically there is a rest for us in Christ… a rest that is every day… all day. It’s our daily privilege, to rest (die) daily to our own works.
So what is Sunday if it’s not the Sabbath? Why did the early Christians begin honoring this day as noted in the earliest Christian writings? Because the most amazing thing to happen so far in human history occurred on that day!! Their sorrow and total despair (because they had not believed His Word when He said he would rise again) was turned to unspeakable joy at the discovery that He had risen… just as He said! Jesus honored this day with His presence among them on numerous occasions after His resurrection. To stop at the Sabbath and not see the glory of Sunday would be like leaving the movie theater in the saddest part of the film and miss the happy ending! We praise and thank Him for our rest, but we can’t walk in death. We walk in newness of life… resurrection life!
“Therefore, if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will surely be united with Him in a resurrection like His….. So you must also reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.“ – from Romans 6
We find no written command anywhere in the New Testament to the church concerning any specific days or observances outside of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. To worship God on Sunday is to voluntarily rejoice and honor a risen Lord, a freewill offering of love and corporate fellowship. And through the Spirit, we can have this joy on any day as the church in Acts met in some form, daily. It says, “With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus…” Acts 4:33
If you delve into the message of the apostles, you will find a big emphasis on the resurrection. Sabbatarians in my experience as a whole, spend very little time on this event in their worship and discussion. Most refuse to even gather to worship at the yearly celebration of this event… Resurrection Sunday during the Passover season. We never saw the magnitude of a completed covenant, and the joy of the New one.. in a risen Christ.
Sunday is not the Sabbath, this is true. The Sabbath pointed to a future rest the adherents of the Old Covenant could not truly enjoy, just as the sacrifices pointed to a future complete atonement the blood of animals cold not procure. The first (or eighth) day points to something even greater we are looking to now; our own glorification and final union with our Lord in the coming resurrection, our Blessed Hope. Until then we have the seal and promise of His Spirit as we walk by faith, trusting He will do as He said.
He Lives
I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living no matter what men say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
Rejoice Rejoice O Christian, lift up your voice and sing Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King! The Help of all who seek Him the Hope of all who find. None other is so loving, so good and kind.
He Lives, He Lives, Christ Jesus Lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.
Hymn by A.H. Ackley
8thDay4Life 
Well put
Not so well put. The teaching has error to it. Jesus kept the Sabbath Day
exactly as was intended. He did good for “others”, honoring His Father. ” As His custom was, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.” It was a day for Holy convocation, EXACTLY as was written in the instruction of the law. We (the believers of the Word) will keep the Sabbath Day in Heaven, says Isaiah. Our rest “is” in Jesus, that is why we are able to
obey His Commandments. “If ye love me, keep my Commandments” JN 14:15
When we believe His Word, we will DO His Word. Your problem is that you have no faith in God’s 4th Commandment. Faith comes by “hearing” and hearing by the WORD OF GOD. Rom 10:17 Eve had this same problem in the garden. We “hear” when we humble ourselves to the word of God. She “knew” what God said, she just didn’t believe it. Times have not changed a bit–for there is nothing “new” under the sun. Solomon quotes that the whole duty of man is to fear God and “keep His Commandments”. The question is, do you fear God?
Jesus did not give me Sabbath observance. That contract with Israel was not made with me. Instead He gave me true rest and Life. I agree it wasn’t as well put as I would have liked. Thank you for reading and commmenting
“By this… will all men know that you are my disciples.. that you keep the 7th Day Sabbath.” Is that how it reads? or.. “If you love me, you will keep the Law of Moses?”…. or did he actually say “MY commands..”? “Go into all the world, make disciples, teaching them all things whatsoever Moses had already commanded you.” Okay.. so if all we needed was Moses, why did Jesus say anything? Why don’t those who insist we have to observe Sabbath based on His example also insist we should follow his life of poverty, eating and drinking with the low life of the world, and asking God to forgive those who hate us (let alone kill us)? Why don’t these other words or actions get equal emphasis at least? I think they were supposed to be the Last Word. Not the First Word which was to prepare the way for Him. Resting in Him is not a contradiction to the old Sabbath observance anymore than the Cross is a contradiction to the Passover Lamb… If we must keep the Day, then we must still kill the Lamb.
short observation: Isaiah also says from “new moon to new moon”… so these would necessarily be observed now as well. Do you keep them also?
Yes. May as well practice, if you are in the Kingdom we will be keeping all Biblical feasts, and Christmas won’t be one of them. And to answer your privious question. “My commands” were those of His Father. He came only for the will of God and the authority was given to Him. Why does Messiah care that our “flight not be on Sabbath”? when talking about a future event? Because He knew that His believers would be honoring and guarding the commands at the end of days. Don’t you find it ironic, the one command, the 4th commandment is the only one that starts with “Remember” and is the one may Catholics/Protestants want to forget?
Reading in Acts this morning. Stephen was accused of speaking against the Law and the Land. He offered no argument in his defense, only to tell the story of his people’s journey with God, then told the religious leaders that they had continually resisted the Holy Spirit and did not keep the Law. In what way were they lawless? This is the point at which I stopped arguing about observances. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I am bemused by a common argument used against the observance of Sabbath; that is that ” Jesus is now my Sabbath rest” because this or that one has ceased from his own works. The insinuation is that those who do observe the Sabbath as a day of rest according to the commandment, have not ceased from their own works.
My question is this, though it seems obvious to me: how can anyone observe the day as a Sabbath, without ceasing from his/her own works?
As a corollary to this, can we observe any commandment without ceasing from our own works? Does not death to self and the infilling of the Holy Spirit create in us the image of Christ? Is this not called sanctification? And because we are transformed into the image of Christ, would it also not be in conformity to the law that Christ wrote on the tables of stone, and which He now writes on the tables of our hearts? We can’t accomplish this without surrender ; without ceasing from our own works. Sanctification is simply that. The changing of the life through the grace and power of God to make it conformable to God’s standards of righteousness. And Ezekiel tells us that by being willing to observe the Sabbath, the day, we are acknowledging that it is God Who is doing the sanctifying, and not we ourselves. (Ezek. 20:12) So by keeping the Sabbath, it is actually a sign we have indeed ceased from our own works, and trusting in Christ’s working in us His righteousness.
Your philosophy sounds logical. Mine is also logical. But in the end my truth is based on the witness of the New Testament Scriptures, not the wisdom of humans.. mine included. The Sabbath is not an injunction which must be obeyed in the New Covenant. Thank you for your comment.
Friend, it’s amazing how much you theorizing and explaining you’ve done to try and wash away one of the 10 commandments..
“Seeing they may see and not perceive,
And hearing they may hear and not understand.”
They were written in STONE for a reason, by the finger of God – you can no more remove the 4th commandment and say it’s fulfilled in Christ or IS Christ than you can do to the other 9. Do we still need to have no other gods than the Lord? Should we still not take His Name in vain? Or what about murder or stealing or committing adultery? Trying to reason away the 4th commandment, the only one that starts with remember is willingly blinding yourself beloved. I pray you come to find the truth – Jesus will reveal the veracity of the issue if you seek with all your heart and are willing to accept His answer. God bless you!
God does not make commands without a purpose. He does not make commands without a blessing. He gives commands for the betterment of those He loves.
He created Sabbath on the seventh day of creation. He sanctified it. He hallowed it. It never was exclusive to Israel; rather it was a gift from God from the beginning of time.
He did not give it as a burden. If Sabbath is unpleasant to you, please search the reason why. Sabbath is a release from daily burdens; a special day to be close to our Maker, and our fellow humans.
It is a day of celebration; but not self-indulgence. If we assume that God created the planet perfectly the first time around, and included the Sabbath blessing at that time, then it is reasonable to assume He will create it perfectly again when it is made anew.
Sabbath is a creation by the perfect God. A gift to humanity. Jesus our example kept it.
That’s more than enough for me.
Jesus is the gift to humanity that is enough for me. 😉 The Sabbath pointed to Him as the greater Gift. I enjoyed keeping it. I did not stop because it was a burden. I stopped because I had made it an idol.
If you read Job’s dissertation on defending his own righteousness to God, the oldest book in Scripture, no mention of the Sabbath is made. If this was a command from Creation, with as much emphasis as modern Sabbath keepers believe it should have, then I believe we would find it there as well. He touches on every other “sin” nearly that you can think of. I don’t believe God put man in a relationship with the Sabbath day until the Exodus. On the contrary, animal sacrifices and circumcision both pre-date Sinai, so if we are going to argue for observances based on their antiquity, we need to bring these back as well. They were were also very much a part of the Law.
I have never had any disagreement with anyone who wishes to observe the Sabbath for the joy of it. But those who do seldom believe that God allows for the freedom of those who do not under the New Covenant in Christ.. who fulfilled the Sabbath as He did the human Priesthood, the Sacrifices, and all the other shadows.
Why don’t we keep the Sabbat (In my own words I wiil try to explain)
Most all Christian Churches are linked to the Mother Church The Catholic Church by the counsel of Churches, to be connected to the Mother Church they must worship on Sunday and Accept the Pagan Trinity. It is all about money. So if in their newsletter they said starting in two weeks from Today we have Sabbath worship and no longer believe in the Pagan Trinity they would be lucky if even 10 people showed up on the Sabbath and many Churches would not have the support of the councel of Churches behind them they would be on their own an very soon many in the USA would go broke. It has nothing to do with God’s law it is about Dollars and Cents
I think I speak for everyone, when I say…….huh?
There is no pagan trinity, pagans had no understanding of 3 persons in One God, they believe in trads of gods which were groups of Gods not One God Like The trinity teaches
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.brace/1THEGODHEAD.html
Also Jesus told us to come to Him for Rest and If he wanted us to keep The sabbath as since Moses time, he would not said come unto me but simply said, keep The sabbath.
Thank you for this website. It is refreshing to know of someone who has actually been down the ‘works’ road through Torah/Law observance.
I totally agree with your assessment of the Sabbath and Jesus. In my family, I have a daughter who has gotten lost in this Hebrew Roots stuff. She once went to our church and claimed to be a Christian. Now, because of the poisonous and confused teaching of some Hebrew Roots folks, she has no idea who Jesus is anymore. Anything called ‘Christian’ or related to the ‘church’ has become evil and pagan in her mind. I have written hundreds of pages of study, straight from God’s Word in an attempt at showing her how wrong this cult-like system is and who exactly Jesus is, but to no avail (yet). The last thing I sent to her (and to a close friend who got her into this confusion) concerns the humanity of Jesus, His Divinity and the Trinity doctrine. I am praying hard that something in this will begin to open their eyes to the Savior they once claimed to know by this Christmas.
Again, thank you for your testimony and continued life of sharing the good news to all.
Have a very Merry Christmas and may God Bless you and your ministry.
Joe
I will add my prayers to yours. May He reveal Himself in ways only He can do. May she know who He really is, and that He is real – in spite of what a Church is or isn’t. He is bigger than all of it. Praising God if any good comes from what I write. I only know we had to share our story. God bless and Merry Christmas to you also!
It appears you really know quite a bit about this topic and it shows via
this particular posting, named “Sunday is not the Sabbath 8thDay4Life”.
Thank you ,Raymond
Israel obeyed the Sabbath and it was given to them pointing to Christ and his fulfilling of the Law (just as this article says). He nailed the law to the tree.
We are now in the time of the Gentiles and do not keep the Sabbath (we are under Grace).
Once the time of the Gentiles is up (rapture and great tribulation begins) there will be no Gentiles saved during the Great Tribulation (only 144,000 Jews specially sealed).
We are in Heaven (believers that are raptured) and that is our home. Believing Jews will have the New Earth after the Tribulation and 1000 year reign (this is why the Sabbath will be followed after the rapture)!
Remember that the Tribulation is the time of “Jacob’s Trouble” (… Jacob is another name for Israel).
Thank you for your thoughts. I envy people who have the end of all things figured out. lol. I don’t hold to any of the many theories, but I am anxiously awaiting to see how it plays out. Maranatha!
AMEN!!!!!!!! I remember reading about the remaining Sabbath rest in Hebrews and having the scales fall off my eyes–JESUS is the Sabbath. HE is my rest. Hallelujah!
I too remember when I learned about how the law was weak in that it could not save us and how my mighty savior yahshua , the messiah, after his resurrection completely fulfilled the law and made it possible for us to cease from our own works and trust him to make us whole. To rest in his spirit and to really trust him to change us into born again people – he didn’t do away with the law – he magnified the law and his grace holds the power to lead us into us into the promise land as we submit to his spirit !!
Wonderful info. So much information provided. How long have you been providing this info on the internet? It is time consuming to read it. I love it and do hope you continue to contend for the faith. Expose heretics. I was a former SDA, in fact a 4th generation. The Good Lord revealed to me that I was saved by faith and it was a gift. My husband and I were at Andrews University in 1980. I no longer attend the SDA church. Please tell me how I can support this ministry. Thank you and God Bless.
Thank you for reading. I am not active on this blog now, but I leave it up for people who continue to stop by. Thank you for sharing your story too. It’s always nice to meet someone else who has found freedom! God bless you too!
Where does it say to celebrate the Sunday in the Holy Bible?
No where!
And where does it say in the Holy Bible to keep the Sabbath day?
Over 150 times the Bible refers to the Sabbath!